Blog by Kathy Kim

Blog 4 – Kathy Kim
Whew, what a cultural experience Japan has been. Although Nagoya is a major metropolitan city, we are in a part of the city that is mainly residential. But mind you, it’s not like the cookie-cutter homes in our OC communities. There is a traditional Japanese house with bonsai trees and Japanese gardens next to a 3-story apartment building next to rice paddies. I had thought that this was what all of Nagoya was like since we’ve been serving here at the church for the entire week. But Nagoya is actually famous for having the Toyota headquarters and the main Noritake factory in the downtown area.

“Think left.” is what Rich had told us in our training before we came here. When we first got here and were loading up in the car, we told one of our team members to go sit up front. When he walked over to the right side of the car to get in, we didn’t think much of it until we saw the steering wheel there. It still catches us by surprise when we see a little kid sitting in the left “passenger” seat of the car. We always do a double take because it still looks like the kid is driving. We found out that there is actually a real reason why the Japanese drive on the left. The Shogun (by the way, they have deep roots here in Nagoya) and the Samurai always carried their swords on their left hip. Had they been walking on the right side of the road, their swords would have bumped into one another as they passed one another. To avoid this, they started walking on the left side of the street, a system they still use till today.

As previous posts have mentioned, the people here in Nagoya have been absolutely awesome. We cannot say enough how we have been blessed by them. At the beginning of the week, we did have some difficulty keeping track on their names. They were gracious enough to wear name tags with their names in English for us, but so many of the ladies have names that end with “ko”. For example, there is a Mariko, Mitsuko, Kazuko, Yamiko, and the list goes on and on. And as a sign of respect, we have to add “san” at the end of their names. The men and older ladies are called by their last names followed by san but the ladies are called by their first names followed by san. Also, little kids are obviously called by their first name but followed by “chan”. It’s now Sunday here, and I think most of us have finally got it ironed out.

On the other hand, some of our team members have new names as well. The people here have had an easy time with some names such as Grace, Tiffany, Josh, and Natalie, but others are proving to be not as easy. The “ch” sound, “th” sound, and hard consonant ending are proving to be tongue twisters for the Japanese. Chad has officially become Chado as it is hard for native Japanese speakers to end a word with the hard d phoneme. They were trying so hard to call him Chad, but since our team has taken to calling him Chado, I think they are comfortable with it now. Whenever Ethan is introduced, he is referred to the Tom Cruise character in Mission Impossible and actor Ethan Hawk. But it’s still E-tan or E-den. Kyle is now a frog because his pronounced in Japanese is Ky-ee-roo, a frog. Now all of you have learned a Japanese word!

OK, so, when going to a foreign country, we have to expect the toilet system to be a bit different, right? First of all, they still use squatting toilets here. We are thankful that it is made out of porcelain and not just a hole in the ground. They do have what is called a western toilet which is what our toilets look like for the most part. But they had interesting parts to them. Most of the newer ones, especially in the homes have a bidet seat attached to them. I know that some of you have seen them in the states, but for the most part, it is a new thing for the majority of our team. I can understand using them in the privacy of your own home, but I’m still unsure about using them in the airport restroom. The most interesting part though is the water spout on the top of the toilet tank. Since the Japanese conserve as much space as possible, the water line is attached to this spout which in turn fills the tank for the next flush. Instead of having a separate sink, you are to use this water spout to wash your hands. When it comes down to it, I guess it really doesn’t matter how clean the water that you are flushing with is. We have noticed that some homes actually put a little plastic flower piece over the drain in the tank if they do not want you to use the spout.

Wow, the list can go on and on, but the biggest thing we are experiencing is God’s faithfulness, even in the smallest things. Thank you for your ongoing prayer support. We miss all of you, especially here on a Sunday and we’ll see you next Sunday!

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